Alternative end of Hunter (last episode of Season 6)
by TGM5657
Summary: If there is a time machine, Hunter should end in season 6 with a different way. Try to write an ending story to match the pilot. Edited version with a lot of help from syntax6 is here.
1. Chapter 1

**In LAPD office at night**

Hunter and McCall had just finished a hard case in which McCall was attacked in her home by a serial killer but saved by a psychic.

Summer was the busiest season. Now it was finally September, but the overload of work had worn them out. Short staffing had always been a problem in LAPD, and it seemed to be getting worse and worse. Starting around two years ago, most days they had to work separately and sometimes even without backups. During the last few months, they had to work on two to three cases at the same time. Neither could remember when was the last time they had left the station before it was completely dark outside.

Now they were sitting at their desk in the office working. More than half of the officers, including Captain Charlie, were also here, some were working and some others were eating and chatting, the whole area didn't look like after-hour.

"It's only September, LA city has already got 802 recorded murders. Last year when we reached 800, it was almost November. Every year, the crime of violence broke the record at both LA and the Federal level." Hunter talked to himself while reading the report from the department,"McCall, every year is getting worse. What's the hell going on?"

"With this trend, this country will become a hell soon." McCall signed, and threw her pen onto the desk."Did you finish for today?"

"No, but I can not do anymore. My concentration is really bad now and I feel like I can't comprehend things when I read it. I am just waiting for you to finish. I am very hungry. How about you?" Hunter asked.

"Me, either." McCall shook her head, looked at Hunter and raised one of her eyebrows, "Ready?"

"Of course."...

The clock on the wall of the precinct pointed to 7:18 pm. Except a bag of crackers, they had not eaten anything after breakfast because the work had kept them so preoccupied, plus they planned to leave early today to have dinner in a restaurant. It was a special night - Friday and also was McCall and Steve's anniversary. They started to plan it since yesterday. McCall knew parking could be a problem at any restaurant on Friday night, and she wanted Hunter to take her home after dinner, so they only drove one car. Today they both also dressed nicely. McCall wore her dark purple evening dress and then put a black suit on the top of it so that her colleagues would not notice it. Like usual, Hunter wore a brand-new red-brownish plaid shirt with a light gray jacket on top.

McCall was a little sad about Steve and something else she could hardly describe. She missed Steve very much. He was murdered only five months after their wedding. McCall continued her career and her life, but no Mr. Right came to her life until she met Hunter. They shared 6 years together, three times as long as the whole time between her first met Steve and his death. Exactly three years ago, she had shared a special night with Hunter at her house, so in a way, it was also a kind of anniversary for her and Hunter. Even after so many years, those beautiful memories were still fresh and unforgettable ... She was waiting for Hunter's response since three years ago. It seemed that he just pretended nothing happened, so she had to pretend to ignore him. Shortly after she came back from Quantico, they shared a bed in the darkness at the Bald Mountain, he had held her tightly to warm her up and she felt his accelerated heart beats. They talked about Steve, and he told her a terrific short ghost story about his dad, but he didn't mention anything about the time they slept together. That night disappointed her a lot and also hurt her. They were in the middle of investing a case, and murders happened in that house when they were there, so eventually she put it out of her mind and moved on. McCall wanted to discuss it with Hunter, but even after seeing Dr. Tate, nothing had come of it since.

She dated a couple of men later. They all had successful and safe careers such as doctors, judges or lawyers, but none of them was comparable to Hunter in her heart. He was already part of her. Although McCall decided she would never marry a cop again, after so many failed relationships, she finally realized that it did not make sense to date anyone else because Hunter was the only man she loved. She wanted to know what he was thinking. During the last a few years, she had rehearsed hundreds of times in her mind how to ask him and then tell him she loved him, but she dared not to ask. She was afraid to lose him as her partner if Hunter was not interested in having a family. If that were the case, it would be embarrassed for her to continue to work together with him. Last month when they invited the psychic to her house, she thought the chance finally came. When she pretended to joke, asking what Hunter was thinking about, the answer was Redhead Vicky, which didn't include any useful information. She did not understand why Hunter was thinking about Vicky, but the psychic read her mind pretty accurately, so she had to trust it. She was very frustrated.

McCall did not want to waste any more time. She would be 34 years old this year. She should have had this conversation with him while she was in FBI training three years ago. No matter what the results would be, she decided to tell Hunter her complicated feelings tonight, to ask what was in his mind and to plan her future seriously depends on his answer.

They had a longer dinner than usual, talking about everything, except their relationship. They had too much to chat, but finally they felt they had stayed there for too long, and they'd better find another place to continue.

"Let's go. I will drop you off at your house." Hunter stood up.

McCall was a little disappointed. She had to talk to him tonight; otherwise, it would be hard to find another chance shortly. "I don't feel sleepy yet. It's a beautiful weekend night. Do you want to take a walk or something?"

"Yeah, it has been a hard week," Hunter replied, "Let's take some time to relax. Where would you like to go?"

"How about watching a movie?" McCall offered. The last time they watched a movie together was more than a year ago. Maybe in a dark theater, she could be more comfortable to bring it up, she thought.

"Good idea. Which movie? Do you have any idea?" Hunter asked.

"'Ghost' is doing gangbusters at the box office. Kitty watched it last week, and she told me, 'you have to watch it, unbelievably fantastic.'"

"Sounds good. What's it about?" Hunter asked.

"Kitty said it was about love and death, the love beyond the separation of live and death. It is also a murder case investigated and solved by a ghost."

"Works for me!" Hunter was happy.

They went to the counter and borrowed the newspaper. Under the dim restaurant light, they found one theater pretty far from here would show this movie at 10:00 pm.

* * *

 **In the theater**

It was a historic theater in a nice safe neighborhood, with beautiful old fashion decoration. Most of the people who came here were well dressed and with a good education. McCall came here a few times, but it was the first time for Hunter. After Hunter had parked his car, McCall put her purse into the trunk. Then Hunter also put his gun and other heavy stuff into the trunk, stretched his back and said, "Forget about the work. Let's take tonight off entirely." He hesitated a little bit and picked up the beeper, put it back to his belt and then closed the trunk. "Just in case," he murmured to himself. She looked at him and smiled.

Although it was late, at such a lovely Friday night, many people came to watch this top-rated new movie. It was easy to tell that a lot of them were couples. It was a bit too late for them to buy the tickets. There were no more good seats left unless they wanted to sit separately. Of course, they would not. They grabbed the snacks, went into the theater and took the seats.

McCall stared up at the screen, which seemed to loom over them. "It's so close!"

Hunter replied, "It's not too bad. We are in the center, and nobody is in front. The view will be excellent!"

The lights went off as soon as they sat down. Each of them had a drink and they shared a big bag of popcorn. In the movie, accompanied by the song Unchained Melody, Sam was holding Molly and they were making pots together. Meanwhile, in the darkness, Hunter accidentally grabbed McCall's hand when he was reaching into the bag. McCall was a little shocked. She felt the warmth from his big strong hand spread to her whole body like a wave. McCall's sixth sense told her that Hunter might also have something willing to say tonight. Without moving her head, she peek at him quickly, found that he was just looking straight, chewing his popcorn, enjoying the story, didn't look like planning to say anything yet.

The beginning of the movie was bright and happy. In the film, Sam said, "I don't know. A lot of things. I just don't want the bubble to burst... Whenever something good happens to me, I'm just afraid I'm going to lose it..." McCall and Hunter glanced at each other involuntarily and then both turned back at the same time.

Later, it was getting darker … Suddenly McCall noticed that there was a man dressed strangely, carrying a backpack, with a helmet and thick coat despite the warm day, walking to the front. Reacting with years of professional training, McCall elbowed Hunter to alert him, and they exchanged eye contact quickly.

The guy at the front suddenly pulled out a semi-automatic military rifle from his coat. Most of the audience was staring at the screen, focusing on Sam and Molly walking down the dark street, and so very few people noticed the shooter.

McCall regretted that they didn't have the weapons with them, but without thinking about anything else, she yelled, "Everybody get down! He has a gun!"

"Police! Drop the gun!" Hunter yelled almost at the same time. Meanwhile, they both got up.

People screamed and ducked, but everything seemed to happen in slow motion.

Hunter threw his water bottle at the guy's head, tried to jump on him by running across the top of the chairs, but their seats were too inconvenient to get out quickly. The crazy man was shocked at the attack, but pointed his gun at Hunter right away and fired many shots. Hunter fell immediately.

McCall smashed her big cup of soda into the guy's face while he was shooting Hunter, just as she reached him, jumped on him, pulled him to the ground and held the rifle. He was still firing, but, fortunately, nobody was in that direction; about one dozen of bullets shot into the ceiling and the screen.

Within a few seconds, an off-duty firefighter joined McCall, and then the security guards of the theater came, got rid of the weapon and put handcuffs on the shooter.

Everything happened so fast. The movie was still on, and the big light in the center of the ceiling went on soon after the guy was controlled. The theater was a huge mess; everybody was screaming, crying and running. People saw the blood on the floor, smelled the gunpowder in the air, and no one knew how many people were killed or injured.

On the screen, Sam was lying on the ground with blood on his chest and Molly was sobbing as though her heart was breaking, and in the theater, Hunter and McCall were the same. Hunter was lying on the ground, jammed between two rows of the chairs, face up, blood foaming from his mouth and nose. The blood from somewhere under his body ran very far on the sloped smooth marble floor where it had been stepped in by the crowd of people in the darkness; now it was smeared and stained everywhere. The location where he lay was dark and narrow, so McCall even could hardly reach him. Except an obvious hole in his chest, McCall was not sure where else he was shot and how many shots he took. She held his blood-covered hand, felt his weak and fast pulse and saw his harder and harder breathing. While trying to get air into his mouth, Hunter also moved his lips weakly, looked like want to say something, but did not; he looked at her with his languid blue eyes full of regrets and helpless. She tried to cover that bleeding hole to avoid too much air going into the chest and tried to stop bleeding, but it was no use.

 _Oh, my God! I had six years._ McCall thought _, why did I wait until today? It is too late!_ She had so many versions in her mind of how to tell Hunter she loved him but never imagined it would happen like this. She was crying and calling his name "Rick, I love you…I love you, Rick. Please do not leave me...Hold on, Rick!" ... ... until her tears took over entirely.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	2. Chapter 2

Within a few minutes, the first ambulance arrived, Hunter was taken to the trauma center in Wilshire Memorial Hospital. McCall, still tearful, was running after the stretcher, following him all the way to the double-door gate of the surgery suite where she was stopped by the medical staffs.

In front of the theater, more than twenty ambulances and dozens of police cars rushed to this small area one after another, with red and blue lights flashing and sirens blaring. The vehicles from all TV stations and newspaper offices joined right after. The whole area was surrounded by yellow tape, and the panic audience were standing outside of the building, within the yellow tape, questioned and recorded by the police officers.

 **In the hospital**

It was already Saturday morning. The sun shined through the window, and the streets under the building woke up and became busy again. All the channels of the TV in the waiting room were broadcasting the breaking news of the theater shooting. McCall had been pacing in the waiting room and front of the gate of the surgery suite with red swollen eyes for a whole night. Now exhausted, she sat with Charlie, and he had an arm around her shoulders. His eyes were sunken and black-ringed. He also didn't get any sleep that night. Same as many other officers, he had been running back and forth from the hospital, the theater, and Parker Center all night long.

Charlie said, "It is confirmed that so far besides Hunter, only five other people were injured. Two were shot, and three were stepped on by the others when they pushed each other trying to get out, and some people felt down at the door. Nobody died."

"I also heard about it. How bad are the two who were shot?"

"Both are not bad. One is shot in the shoulder. The other one was injured in the leg. They will be discharged today or tomorrow. I just chatted with their spouses at the 3rd floor here. They sat a few rows behind you and Hunter. Everybody told us all the details of what happened. You two are such great heroes!"

McCall felt a little bit of relief, but not much. This news was great, but not good enough to make her feel any better. Her brain was blank.

Then Charlie continued, "Without you, it is hard to imagine the situation could be. That guy had hundreds of bullets with him and a bomb in the car when he was arrested. You two are the pride of LAPD."

McCall didn't answer him. The only thing in her mind now was whether Hunter would survive. Whenever she saw anyone came out of the operating room, her heart got tight, worrying about the worst news. Charlie also prepared for the worst. As soon as he found Hunter mom's address, he called Brad Navarro and Kitty O'Hearn, asking them to bring her here. They left around 3 o'clock in the morning. About half an hour ago, Charlie paged them; they said they were on the way back here, with Hunter's mom riding with Kitty and Brad was driving her car to LA.

Finally, two doctors got out; McCall knew one of them was in charge of Hunter. He had a satisfactory smile while talking to the other one, and both doctors seemed calm. McCall and Charlie ran to them anxiously.

"Does he survive?" McCall and Charlie asked at the same time.

"Yes," one doctor replied with a tired voice, "so far."

"What is his situation?" Charlie asked.

"Two shots," then the doctor pointed to himself, "one bullet went in from here and buried here deeply inside the bone, the other one went in from the chest and tore a big hole at the back. High-speed jacketed hollow point bullets used to kill the bears and fired within very short distance, the damages were severe."

The other doctor added, "If he were a few more minutes late to get here, he would be gone. His heart stopped once at the beginning, but we shocked it back. During the surgery, we gave him close to twice as much of his blood volume of transfusion. It's a miracle that he survived."

Charlie and McCall wanted to ask for more detail, but the doctors started to walk away, the first doctor answered, "We already released more information than necessary without the patient's agreement. Does he have any family members here?"

Charlie replied while following the doctors, "His mother is coming. Will he make a full recovery?"

"It's too early to say. We'll wait for him to wake up first. If he is stable without too many complications and the infection is under control, he should be okay.

Better than what McCall thought, Hunter was shot only twice, she felt somewhat solaced, but she didn't know the details. Both shots were life-threatening. The first caused chest penetration; eventually the doctors had to remove the severely damaged lobe of his lung to stop the massive bleeding. The other one penetrate through the abdominal from one side and the bullet ended up into the hip-joint at the other side, destroyed it by comminuted fracture after damaging multiple organs while it traveled a long distance inside the body. It caused massive bleeding, and severe infections could be the next. In order to save his life, the doctors had to remove a piece of the unfixable intestine. Both wounds could have many complications and leave long-term sequelae. At best, he would still need another surgery later to replace the joint.

"Can we see him now?" McCall was eager to see him and asked.

"Of course. Sign your names at the nurse station, they will take you to see him. He has not yet woken from the anesthesia. There is nothing to see, to be honest." The exhausted doctors answered and walked away in a hurry.

McCall ran into the double-door gate to the surgery suite. She saw one room on the left was opened, and she rushed there. Charlie was following her about seven or eight steps behind. A hospital staff in the hallway stopped her, "Excuse me, Mam. You can not come here." "I am Sergeant McCall, the homicide investigator. I am looking for a victim of last night theater shooting." The staff hesitated a little bit, "Your ID? … But, … you still should not come here." McCall realized that her ID was in Hunter's car in the parking lot. She peeked into the room, _Yes! Hunter is here, alive!_ She was so exciting. Four or five hospital staffs were busy in moving Hunter from the surgery table to a bed, and a few others were cleaning up the tables and floor. McCall ran into the room. The room smelled and also looked like a homicide scene. The blood was everywhere, besides that, two huge biohazard boxes of hospital waste sitting next to the table, filled with stuff soaked by blood. "Hi, Mam, get out of here. You can not come in." Even before McCall saw Hunter's face, one hospital staff gently pushed her out and closed the door. McCall calmed down a moment, saw the big sign on the door "Stay Sterile". She felt very guilty and hit her forehead hard with her fist, "My brain certainly doesn't work", she cried to Charlie, embarrassing.

After another ridiculous long waiting in the waiting room, a nurse finally came and told them where to go. They took the elevator, signed names at the front desk, and crossed an "Authorized Person Only" hallway after a nurse paged the inside station to open the gate. Eventually, they entered the crowded little room in ICU. It was pretty dark with the signal lights flashing and different curves on the monitors with their monotonous beeping sounds. Hunter was lying on a bed with an oxygen mask, hooked up to equipment with many wires and connected with several tubes for blood transfusion, IVs, and multiple liquids draining. Tears ran out of McCall's eyes and blurred her view. This time, they were grateful and happy tears. Hunter was still quite pale, but peaceful. His heartbeat curve on the monitor looked stable. She could tell that Hunter was naked and only covered with a thin blanket. She wanted to see where he was injured, how big the surgery incisions looked like and the locations of those liquid draining tubes so that she would tell which organs were damaged, but with Charlie and the nurse standing beside, it would be utterly inappropriate to check. She even didn't touch his hand or kiss his forehead before they left.

After such a terrible event, Charlie suggested McCall take one week off. She agreed and spent the time shuttling between the hospital and their houses every day, without any plan. Hunter's mom was here. Sometimes Mrs. Hunter slept on the little foldable bed in Hunter's room in the hospital; sometimes she stayed at Hunter's house accompanied by McCall for a few hours at night. During the daytime, she spent almost every minute with her beloved son, especially when he was awake. McCall never got a chance to stay with Hunter while he was awake only by herself. She felt pretty awkward being there, but she also learned a lot of Hunter's childhood stories from his mom. Sometimes she intended to leave Hunter with his mother alone because they didn't get much time to spend together during the last so many years. Even though she told herself not to be jealous of Hunter's mom, she still felt she wasted her time off.

Hunter was lying on the bed, most of the time just sleeping. He was so weak that he even could barely blow any air into the incentive spirometer. He told the doctors he still felt dizzy, short of breath and worried about the future. After his self-controlled morphine infusion pump was removed, even under pain control medication, he said every breath gave him sharp pain. It was obviously that every coughing almost killed him. With the hip fixed, he was not able to move or to get any comfortable position. Although Hunter appeared to relax and happy in front of his mom, McCall knew how much pain those bullet holes, broken bones, and huge surgical incisions were causing him. Thinking about that made her heart shake. She didn't get much of a chance to talk to him, and she didn't want him to talk. His breath was hard, and his voice was hoarse. When he went to sleep, sometimes she sat beside the bed for hours, just to look at him.

His mother also tried not to disturb him, but sometimes, she sat beside the bed, could not help murmuring softly, half to herself, half to her son, like mom telling stories to baby. It was Sunday morning. When McCall came, the door stood ajar. She heard Hunter and his mom were chatting. Hunter's voice was not very clear, but his mom's voice was quite clear. She didn't want to interrupt, so she planned to leave and return later, but her own name caught her attention. So, she stopped and stood there to hear what they were talking about.

…

"Ricky, Dee Dee is a good girl. You have told me many times that you only have a professional relationship with her as partners, but I think it's more than that. She knows where everything is in your house, and she told me a lot about you. She knows you as well as I do, probably better even. During these past a few days, when you were sleeping, she sat beside you, holding your hand and kissing your forehead. From her eyes, I can tell that you two are far from 'just friends.' Ricky, I am really happy for you if ..."

Hunter stopped her, "Mom, we are just friends." McCall felt sorrowful.

Hunter's mom said, "It is obviously that she loves you. Do you love her?" That's what McCall exactly wanted to know, she held her breath.

"Yes, she is the only woman .. I love in the world ... except you, mom."

 _Oh, my God!_ McCall's heart beat fast. _Why has he never told me?_

"You are already forty-something; you should have a family, Ricky. When I was at your age, you were already twenty-three. Did you tell her that you love her?"

"No, I couldn't."

"Why?" His mom didn't understand, and neither did McCall.

"I cannot give her what she wants. ...I am afraid to disappoint her." McCall was quite confused on Hunter's reply.

"What does she want?" Mom asked.

"She will not marry a cop again," Hunter said, "Her husband was killed on duty … years ago, … still hasn't recovered … so many years, so she … someone with a safe job."

Hunter's mom started to sob …

"Mom. I am safe. I do not mean ..."

"You are safe?! You almost died, Ricky! Oh, how is your pain? Should I get the nurse here?"

"Mom … I am OK, not hurt much … better than yesterday." Hunter replied. "Usually, I am pretty safe ... This time, … not work-related, just bad luck. If I weren't a cop, … dead already … my partner saved my life… Mom, … , my job does have some risk … but … not as dangerous as you think."

"I am so afraid of losing you, Ricky. I am very proud of you, but you never give me any peace of mind. You started to get in trouble in kindergarten, always fought in school; then you went to Vietnam. I have never stopped worrying about you. Even now, whenever I call you to make sure you're OK, you're always so impatient. … Ricky, when will you understand a mother's feelings?" His mom choked with sobs.

"I am sorry, mom. … I totally understand you. When I was little, I was stupid … I am not the same now."

"Given your situation, do you think you will be possible to go back to your regular job after recovery?" his mom asked.

"Don't worry, Mom. ... The doctors said … full recovery, so I will."

"Can you consider a change to a safer position in the department? You have a good reason now."

Hunter said, "No, I hate paperwork … I don't have a college degree … high technology stuff."

Hunter's mom got a little angry. She waited a few seconds, said, "You are right. It is not fair to ask such a good girl to marry you. You are too stubborn. Did you ever talk to her?"

"I told her a few times, kind of...not directly. ...She will not … another cop, Mom... She made that very clear." McCall felt full of regret. She didn't realize that it was she who forbade Hunter to show his real emotions to her. At least, she knew it now.

Hunter's mom sobbed and left the room. When she opened the door, she almost ran into McCall. "I am sorry, Dee Dee."

"Mrs. Hunter, good morning." McCall pretended that she just arrived there. "Did Rick wake up?"

"Yes, he did," Hunter's mother answered. "Dee Dee, could you take me to his doctor's office again? This hospital is like a maze; I am afraid that I could not find it by myself. I want to ask him some questions about Rick."

After coming back, McCall went into Hunter's room quietly. Hunter was sleeping again. His eyes were closed with two streams of a tear on his face. McCall knew he must feel sad to disappoint his mother, but he thought he made the right choice. His conversation with mom touched McCall so much. After knowing the deep love in Hunter's heart, instead of making McCall feel happy, she felt very regret that she declared that she would not marry a cop.

Later, Hunter's mother came back. She told McCall, "I am going to pick up my stuff at his house and go back to my apartment. Rick is stable now. I asked my friend to take care of my fish and dog for 3 to 4 days, now it's already more than a week, I have to go. Tell him that I will come back later to see him. Thank you, Dee Dee. Rick is euphoric when you are here with him. " She kissed her son, left a small flower basket at the tiny table with a note, hugged McCall and left.

When Mrs. Hunter was here, McCall felt a little bit annoyed, but when she saw her leaving, she felt pretty sad. McCall knew that opposite from her childhood, Hunter grew up in downtown LA. His father had many bad habits, liked to make criminal related friends and didn't care about family. He worked on recycling cardboard boxes, then scrap metal. Later he was killed by his friend when Hunter was only 17. He left nothing to his wife and child, except debts. Because of that, they lost their condo, and they had to move into a trailer located in a poorer neighborhood. He had to go to the high school famous for its high criminal rate, where more students went to jail than college. He knew he did not belong to there. He experienced the bottom of the society, witnessed all kinds of crime in the underworld and decided to be a police officer.

Hunter's mom did many different jobs, from the small grocery store cashier, hotel housekeeper to school front-office staff. All these jobs she took kept her busy all day long but didn't provide much income. Mom didn't have much time to share with Hunter, but she put all her hope on him, her only child. To help mom, Hunter took the bus to the wealthy neighborhoods to mow grass or clean leaves when the school was over, to unload the groceries from the trucks and shelf them for the local stores at weekends. He was a lonely person since childhood and didn't have any real friends in school at his early life. Mom was the only one who loved him, supported him and kept him straight and narrow. He had justice in his mind and followed his own law, which kept on getting himself into big troubles in school. Even in such a harsh environment, Hunter never smoked, drank or used the drugs, not sure just because mom didn't allow that, or he seemed to have natural immunization on those.

Hunter loved his mom very much, but could not spend much time with her. Whenever Hunter mentioned his mom to McCall, he always showed some guilty feelings. After Hunter coming back from the marine service, he only spent about one year together with mom. As a cop, he made too many enemies among his childhood neighborhoods and his father's relatives. So he rent mom apartments with support staffs and security system two hours away from him just for her safety, where she made a bunch of new friends and started a new life. Hunter never gave anybody mom's address. Even Charlie had to search the police department databases to get her contact information and located her that night.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	3. Chapter 3

Next Morning, McCall returned to work and continued their cases by herself. Every night, she went to the hospital to visit Hunter, telling him her progress on the cases, like the days when she was in the hospital, and Hunter reported the work to her. It was always very late, and McCall was so tired out of the work. Sometimes she wanted to sleep in the tiny foldable bed or even in the chair, but she forced herself to go home so that she could have enough energy to work next day. Without Hunter, her workload was so much heavier.

One day, McCall came in with an enormous bunch of flowers in a round white china vase with different sizes of small pink and red hearts on it. They were mixed roses with red and yellow colors, surrounded by green leaves and small white flowers. McCall carefully put the flowers together in the florist's store trying to show her love, friendship and best wishes for good health. When she opened the door, Hunter's bed was raised, so he looked like halfway sitting up, laying back against the pillows, waiting for her coming.

"McCall, you've almost turned me nocturnal." Hunter joked with a big smile.

"You are free to sleep in the daytime, and I don't have time to come during the day. Any good news here today? Hunter."

"Nothing, except another surgery in the morning. What do you expect to be good here? How about yourself?"

"Yes, I found the evidence of the killer. You remember the witness in the Ann Peabody shooting? Well, it turns out he was the shooter. We traced the casing back to his 9mm this morning."

McCall brought the flowers closer to him. Hunter took the vase from her, holding it with his trembling hands with IV needles on, quickly landed it on his thigh, smelling and admiring them. " McCall, it's the first time you ever send me flowers. They are so beautiful!" Hunter seemed do not know much or care about the meanings of the colors of the flowers, but he loved them. McCall already expected he would only use this tedious word "beautiful" to describe her flowers when she was in the florist store.

"The vase is too heavy for you, Rick." McCall took it back and put on the table. "What kind of memory you have? This is the third time. The first time was three years ago I came with Kitty, and the second time was last week while you were sleeping."

"OK, so you've only sent me flowers three times."

"Really? How often do you like to be here? I would be very happy to send you flowers as often as you like." McCall gave him her famous eye-rolling.

"See, I saved you a lot of money." Hunter laughed. With his self-controlled morphine infusion pump back, he became so happy and was able to laugh again.

"What do you mean, you've saved me money?"

"The day I asked you to be my partner, ... your florist bills were starting to look like the national debt, remember? … After I became your partner, only three times in six years—I'm a bargain!"

...

After winning the war fighting for his life during the first week, Hunter got a few minor surgeries and the tubes had been taken out from him one after another. It was Saturday morning again, two weeks after the theater shooting, McCall was sitting at a chair next to his bed. She told Hunter some stories from LAPD and then was about to read a book to him. Doctor Martinko came in. He must already guess that McCall was more than a colleague, might be his girlfriend or at least a special close friend, so he looked Hunter seemed to ask him whether he should tell her to get out for privacy. Hunter shook his head slightly with a smile, so McCall stayed.

Dr. Martinko told Hunter,"After such severe wounds, most likely you would have some long-term health issues in the future, more or less."

"OK, whatever", Hunter shrugged with one shoulder, bit his lip and twitch his mouth a little bit.

"However, in theory, if you can follow my directions strictly on physical therapy, you could be almost as strong and healthy as before. We have a preliminary training plan designed for you."

McCall lifted her head and looked at the doctor with a smile, then turned to Hunter. She saw Hunter's eyes suddenly became bright.

Dr. Martinko continued, "The earlier to start the training, the less chance to get sequelae or less serve. If you feel OK, we can start within two weeks."

Hunter answered,"I feel fine now. Can we start today?"

"No, today is too early, I am not prepared for that yet." The doctor laughed after his answer, then became very seriously, "The earliest time we can try some easiest task will be Monday to see how it goes. All the patients decide to start early, but once the rehabilitation training starts, almost everybody gives up somehow and eventually wait until too late to start."

"Why?" both Hunter and McCall asked.

"Because if you want to start early, you should not be afraid of pain. Remember, when you start the training, you can not take any pain control medication to avoid secondary damages. The last pill you can take is the one you took before going to bed last night. Most of the exercises will not hurt your surgery sites or use those muscles. However, during some other exercises, you have to stretch yourself to the maximum pain you can bear and hold it. We have some instruments to help you, but you decide how much you can do each time. If you wait until most of the pain disappears to start the training, the therapy is not as effective and you will definitely have sequelae, including some levels of disabilities ..."

"One of his legs doesn't have much feeling on the pain, how can you avoid overstretch it and cause damage?"McCall asked.

"One purpose of the early training is to recover the function of that leg. The position of his hip will still keep fixed, only exercise the anything from the knee. The muscles are paralyzed due to the nerve injury. All the exercises on that leg and foot are passive. We have the instruments to measure the electromyography and muscle tension and the computer can adjust it to the optimal frequency and force. Don't worry about it. Trust today's medicine research and products of newest biomedical engineering." Dr. Martinko smiled.

"Please let me try on Monday. I want to be back to force as a police officer, a completely healthy person. You can help me reach that goal. Can you?"

"Yes, of course. If you follow my procedure. I promise." Dr. Martinko shook his hands and looked at his eyes with confidence.

So, Hunter's long journey of rehabilitation training started, even before he was not able to turn himself to another position in bed.

...

Finally, it was the day of discharging, a big day for both Hunter and McCall. These four weeks seemed so long. Since Hunter was officially living by himself, the hospital assigned him a part-time nurse, a very sweet young man. McCall helped him to rearrange Hunter's furniture in the house, moving the bed down from upstairs. Now both the bed and couch were in the living room, side by side, next to the kitchen, making the room very crowded.

It was late at night, and only two of them were left in the house. McCall decided to stay and tell Hunter all the feelings she had been holding inside. Even after Hunter's mom left, she still didn't feel comfortable to talk about it in the hospital. She already cried out her feeling to Hunter at the theater, and she knew what Hunter was thinking, so it was easy now. Once she started talking, the words came like a waterfall.

"When I held your hand in the ambulance, I felt that I was holding Steve's hand. I was so scared. Steve died on the way to the hospital, and I was not there with him. I thought I would see the same thing happened to you."

"Just because Steve died doesn't mean I would also die. I am luckier than him." Hunter was still joking.

"You lost a lot of blood. You were so pale and helpless. Your hand was cold, and your breathing was labored. The position of your chest shot looked lethal, and I didn't know how many more bullets hit you. I was not sure whether it was still possible to save you ... I was afraid that the time we would stay together might be counted only by minutes ... "

Hunter stopped joking and became serious. He said, "In fact, I also thought I was about to die, and I realized that I didn't get a chance to say 'I love you' during the last six years. After I had fallen onto the ground, I heard so many more shots, and I could not see you. I thought you must be shot as well. I was in despair ... When I saw you coming back, I was extremely relieved that you were alive, but I still believed that we would be separated forever. I heard you calling my name and crying. I tried, but I couldn't talk, couldn't say anything. I had all this stuff to say to you, but I thought it was too late. I tried to keep alert, telling myself to hold on, never give up, but then everything went black..."

McCall was crying, and Hunter's eyes were full of tears. Although McCall was afraid to hurt him, she hugged him carefully, and they stay embraced for a long time, gently and silently, with the tears running ...

McCall asked, "Rick, do you remember the night we slept together?"

Hunter replied, "Of course. How can I forget that evening?"

"But, why you never mention anything about it?"

Hunter hesitated a little bit and said, "I am so sorry, Dee Dee. I drank too much, and my emotions went out of control that night. I felt very guilty and dared not to face it."

"You feel guilty?! That's you feeling?" McCall sounded hurt and stopped him.

Hunter explained, "I mean, I didn't want to confuse you. I love you so much that I sincerely wish you to find someone better than me to set up a family and live the life you dreamed."

"The only man I am loving is you, but you are attempting to keep a distance from me. I want to know the real feeling in your mind."

"The more I attempted to maintain a distance from you, the flame of love in my heart burning stronger. During our first three years as partners, we were so close to each other, even closer than most of the married couples, but that night changed me. I crossed too far from the double yellow lines. After that, I tried to avoid banters with you since they made my face flush. I kept my hands in the pockets so that I would not touch you. But, I was not able to control my brain. I dreamed of you a lot. Most of these were just nightmares - either you were killed or in great danger. I am so afraid of the bubble burst."

"You know the way you were doing confused me and hurt me? I need to talk to you, but you simply ignored my feelings." McCall was sobbing so sadly like a little girl.

"I am so sorry, Dee Dee. I felt that I was not right, but I didn't know a better way to handle that." Hunter held McCall's shoulders, looked at her with guilt and sensation.

He said, "I could die any day on duty, that's why I dare not to tell you 'I love you' for so many years. I had an intuition that you wanted to tell me something important that night about our relationship, but since you didn't mention anything, it was too awkward for me to bring up that conversation. No matter what, I thought I would tell you those three words when I sent you home. I buried this feeling deeply in my heart for so long, and it really hurts. After I had been shot, I thought I lost the chance forever and even saying 'goodbye' became impossible. My heart was broken. At that moment, I realized how much I don't want to leave you."

"Me, too. At that moment, I realized that a piece of paper makes no difference, no matter I marry you or not, my feelings for you were the same I had for Steve. Hunter, every day we have together is precious. Even if we are not cops, we both could have been killed in that movie theater—no one knows what tomorrow will bring. We should appreciate every day."

"Dee Dee, I love you! I don't remember exactly when I fell in love with you, but it was a long time ago. I remember the first time I was about to tell you my feelings was during those days when we were babysitting Fabro in the hotel, where you said that you would not marry another cop. Then I decided to hide my feelings from you." Hunter cupped her face with his big hands and looked at her eyes fondly.

"I love you, too ... I am so sorry that I said that to you. Around that time, I felt that I could no longer control myself from falling in love with you. I set this rule to myself because I really could not go through losing another husband in my life. After I had gone through this experience of almost losing you, I realized that the rule is just used to fool myself. If I take it back now, do you mind if I want to marry you?" McCall asked.

"Of course not, but … but I am not able to offer you what you want." Hunter was quite nervous.

"Don't be silly. Do you know what I want?" McCall asked.

"Green grass, white fence, beautiful garden, BBQ at the backyard, with tiny little McCalls hopping around..."

"Yes and No. What I want most is just you."

Hunter was dumbstruck, unable to speak.

"Do you really not like children?" she asked. "Be honest."

"To be frank, I love kids very much."

"That's what I've observed. But why did you tell me that you don't want to have a family or children?"

"... It's hard to explain, I wanted you to exclude me when you choose whoever to marry to because you want to have kids very much."

"You are such a stupid, bad guy …"McCall didn't know what to say to him. She gazed at her partner. His hair was going gray at the temples, and the wrinkles in his face were getting deeper. She remembered that Rick was such a handsome young man when he asked her to be a partner, but within only six years he was no longer young. This highly stressful job made him age so much faster. Especially after this dreadful injury and with the beard, he seemed added another a few more years on his face.

"If I knew what you were thinking, I would have told you all these many years ago," McCall whispered, "We wasted so many years."

"Dee Dee, we didn't waste any time. I enjoy the years we spent together, full of great memories. It's the best time in my life …" Hunter looked at her eyes, spoke in a lower voice, "Dee Dee, you know I love you very much, but I think we'd better not get married. My job is too risky. I can't risk you to go through that again or leave our kids fatherless. I am too dedicated to my job and cannot give up. Maybe I am too selfish. "

"That's not selfish," McCall replied with her tears running, "I also could be killed at any day, but I still want to have a family. Comparing to the job, the family is more important for me. I have to settle down with a stable life, a husband, and kids. Being a woman with the biological clock clicking, I cannot afford to wait any longer. As I told you, no matter we get married or not, if you died at that night, it would not be any easier for me than Steve's death. It doesn't matter now."

Hunter dropped his head and asked, "How about we both quit? If you are not doing a cop, I don't want to do it without you."

"Then, what you are going to do?"

"I don't know. I just want to be with you and make you happy."

Their discussion didn't get any conclusion and ended with big sighs.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	4. Chapter 4

**In the police department**

McCall was continuing working on the cases that she did not finish with Hunter before the theater shooting. She solved the last two all by herself. With a big relief, she put the reports into the folders and came into Charlie's office. Charlie had started with the same routine opening sentence every day with her before he started any conversation, "How is Hunter doing?" Sounds like he naturally thought that she supposed to know Hunter's situation at any time.

"He is doing pretty well, as expected, very busy, 4 to 6 hours of training per day including weekends. He has appointments with 4 different doctors. His schedule is as full as mine."

"Good, when he will have the hip replacement done?"

"Next week, and then he will be able to walk soon," McCall answered.

"Great! I will visit him in the hospital after the surgery. Remind me. I will go together with you."

"Sure."

McCall turned and opened the door, about leaving the office. Charlie stopped her. "Congratulations! According to your annual evaluation submitted in July, you are qualified to be promoted to Lieutenant."

"Wow, thank you, Charlie! … How about Hunter?" McCall was exciting and asked.

"He was qualified a few years ago when Lt. Finn was still alive, but every year he turned it down."

"Really? He never mentioned that to me."

"He also asked me not to tell you."

"Why?"

"Ask him. This year, I even didn't submit the promotion paperwork for him. I guess I should do that now, since you are also qualified, huh? It's a little late, but not the deadline yet. I will try to put everything together this afternoon." Charlie looked at the documents in his hands, sounded more like to talk to himself.

Then he raised his head and spoke to McCall, "You understand that you will not be partnered with Hunter anymore, lieutenants don't have assigned long-term partners in my department."

"Of course I know," McCall was a little bit sad, "That must be the reason he didn't want to be advanced. I will ask him when I get back home." Charlie studied her with an enigmatic smile. McCall's face got red, and she dropped her head. She noticed that this answer confirmed that she was living together with Hunter after work.

"Exactly. After Lt. Finn died, his position is still not filled. The plan was to put Hunter into that spot, but he didn't take it only because he wanted to be a partner with you. Now you will be promoted as well, he should be happy to move ahead. I will put you in that important position this time."

Charlie continued, "Hunter will not be able to come back very soon. I won't assign you any temporary partner or new cases. Just go ahead to wrap up your work. Meanwhile, I will assign you to any group that needs help. It's good for you to get used to working on multiple cases with different teams altogether. When Hunter comes back, the Department might have a new job for him as well."

"What is his new job?"

"Don't know yet, it depends on his medical report and the requirements of the department ... In other good news, Hunter and you will be awarded the Medal of Valor, because of your extraordinary bravery and heroism in the theater shooting incident. As experienced officers, you obviously know how to keep yourselves safe in that situation, but you didn't. Facing the firing rifle, both of you jumped up, risking your lives to save the others. The whole country knew it."

"The medal is not officially announced yet, but it's approved this morning. You might also get some honors from the State or Federal levels."He continued.

Medal of Valor, the highest honor in LAPD. McCall was so happy that Hunter and she could get it. It only awarded once per year and not every year to the bravest police officers since 1925. Whenever she passed by the gallery, she admired those old black-and-white photos of previous heroes so much. After Steve's photo had been hung there two years ago, she tried not to walk through that hall because she didn't want to see Steve's black-and-white picture there among the colored photos. Steve got this medal by paying for his life. It was hard for McCall to imagine that both herself and her husband, more accurately, husbands, would all be on that wall someday. This is the greatest honor for a police officer. She felt it was too heavy to accept. If Steve didn't get it, she would feel different. She didn't know how to describe the feelings, happy, sad, strange, McCall could not tell.

For the promotion, her feelings were also complicated. She would be a Lieutenant, so does Hunter, but so what? She did not like to be someone's boss. She just wanted to be Hunter's partner; no matter she was a sergeant or something else. The rank didn't matter for her if they stay together. She missed those years they worked together, and from now on all those memories might only remain as memories. No matter how, they could not continue as partners … McCall was kind of sad. _Should I also reject to be promoted like what Hunter did?_ She was thinking, _no, no, no, I have to start a family before it is too late, maybe it's_ _the time. Working in the office is better for me._

 **At Hunter's house**

After coming back from hip-joint reconstruction, Hunter didn't get a nurse. He was able to move around slowly by himself and McCall stayed with him every night since he was discharged last time unless his mom was there.

One evening, Hunter sat in a bar chair watching the news. McCall was cleaning up the kitchen and came to him with his pills and water.

"A spokesperson for the NYPD has confirmed that the 12-year-old boy shot and killed by Officer Joe Parker yesterday at the Alameda playground was, in fact, carrying a toy BB gun. From a distance, the toy gun bears a remarkable similarity to a semiautomatic handgun." They both froze in front of the TV. McCall put the water on the counter, turned to Hunter and buried her face in his chest. Hunter held her and put his face to her hair. They closed their eyes.

Eventually McCall said, "Cops have a tough life. Any mistake could kill innocent people or ourselves."

"Yes, but that guy is also idiotic!"

"You have to make a split-second judgment. Both you or I could make a mistake like that."

"I wouldn't make that mistake. I never did."

"Everyone makes mistakes. Thank God, you haven't made it yet, but you never know. In a nation of easy guns we are living, we have to expect that virtually anyone may be armed and dangerous."

…..

Later at night, they both lay in bed.

"If I had my gun handy that night in the theater," Hunter said, "I would not be in the hospital twice and make you work like a nurse for so long. That guy should go to hell."

"No problem. It's my pleasure to be your nurse, Sergeant."

"But it's not my pleasure to be a patient, Lieutenant."

"It's just temporary. In fact, you never know how it might have turned out if something was different about that night? If our seats were in the back row, we wouldn't have been able to shoot him even if we had guns, but his rifle could still easily kill us."

"I mean if our seats were the same seats. I am sure I could shoot him down before he fired. I never miss."

"Come on, you even didn't see him when he showed up and pulled out the weapon. It was me who saw him. Plus, he wore a helmet and vest."

"If everybody had a gun in the theater, he wouldn't have dared to bring a gun there."

"If everybody has to carry a gun to watch a movie, Hollywood would have already closed. We will not have any movie to watch. You know most of these mass shooting killers have mental disorders. They usually killed themselves afterward, so they didn't care whether other people will shoot them or not. It's their way to suicide."

She stopped a moment, then continued, "You imagine if most of the people in the theater are prepared to defend with their guns in hands. It's dark and crowded. If the guy suddenly starts a fire at his seat, then everybody else pulls out their guns, trying to locate the shooter. How can they tell who is the real killer, since everyone has a gun in hands? Finally, one person discovers the right shooter and starts to fire, and then everybody else would shoot him to defend themselves. Does this make any sense?"

Then, McCall sat up to turn off the lights. "Hunter, during these years we've worked together, how many officers have been killed?"

"I've never counted, but about 10 to 15."

"Most of them were killed by a gun. We've both also been shot before and this time we were almost killed. I wish the restrictions on firearms are tighter."

"It's useless and could be worse. Chicago started to ban guns since 1982, but the criminal rate increasing significantly after that and it became one of the highest in the country. On the other hand, everybody carries a gun in Houston, the criminal rate is one of the lowest among big cities."

"Chicago is not an island. Only ban the weapons in one state is really stupid. Nobody will check whether anyone drives into Chicago with a firearm or not. All the three cities with the highest homicide rate, Detroit, New Orleans and St. Louis, have one thing in common. They prohibited by state law from enacting ANY new gun ordinances and have been for years. I mean if the whole United States is already a gun-free zone, life would be much easier for us."

"That would be very nice. We might lose our jobs. But how about a knife? Dr. Bolin killed a bunch of women with a knife. Should anybody allow to have a knife? Then how about anything else that could kill? Including bare hands? It is people who kill, not the guns."

"I disagree," McCall replied. "If it's extremely difficult to get a firearm, I don't think that crazy Ph.D. was able to buy an AR-15 to kill people in the theater. I am not talking about the gangs, the drug dealer or the mobsters. They always have ways to get everything illegally. For the guy who wanted to kill us, he never had any criminal record, and everybody said he was one of the nicest persons in the lab. No matter how careful to check the gun owner's background, you still could not pick anything on him."

Hunter said, "No, he has depression."

"He was diagnosed after he had shot us, and his lawyer said so. He had no record on that before the shooting, right? He bought the AR-15 and bullets legally in Wal-Mart. Those particular lethal bullets are thought to be humane on hunting." McCall continued, "The only purpose of the gun is to kill, nothing else. Even hunting animals are also killing, right? Why can everybody easily buy a gun preparing to shoot someone? Something is wrong here. Ban the deadly weapons is common sense, should be done since last century. Regular people don't need them, but the shooters used them to kill the kids in Cleveland Elementary school last year or fire to us in the theater."

"It's the Constitution. We can not change it. Nothing is wrong here. Everybody has the right to bear a weapon to defend himself."

"Defend? Using a gun to defend is a lethal legend. In any mass shooting, did any victims use their guns to defend themselves? Never! The study by the University of Maryland found that guns were used in criminal far more than defense. Defense only happened at 0.2%. For violent crimes, assault, robbery, and rape, guns were used 0.83% of the time in self-defense. I am a cop. When Mariano came to my house and raped me, even I couldn't get a chance to use my gun to defend. When he shot you, why didn't you defend? How can you expect when other people will point their guns to you? Can you use a gun to defend the serial snipers on the highway?"

"Because only the shooters were prepared, not the victims."

"That's the point. We are professionally trained and carrying loaded pistols every day, but neither of us had our guns ready at that moment in the theater. It's unpredictable. It's impossible to have everybody carrying their loaded guns at every moment. Otherwise, all the emergency rooms will be filled with accidentally injured people, especially children, and our cities would become a war zone. So, for most people, whenever a gun is needed, it's not ready, what's the point for everybody to have one? Just be handy for suicide?" McCall was pretty thrilling.

Hunter agreed. "I agree with you, but unfortunately, it's too late to take away the guns from our citizens. Only good guys will submit their firearms, and all the bad guys will keep theirs. Then everywhere will become Chicago."

McCall signed, "That's a problem. But wait, how can you tell a good guy from a bad guy? If not the majority, at least half of the murder suspects we arrested never have criminal records before. Are they good guys or bad guys?"

Hunter continued, "Even if there is a law to restrict the guns, the criminals will break it. It's useless."

"No," McCall disagreed,"If the logic is, it's useless to regulate guns because criminals will still break the law. Then why have traffic laws? Why have any laws? Why do we exist?"

Hunter answered, "Let's go to sleep, leave those who in the Congress to figure out a way. We cannot do anything to change it. It has been debated for so many years. Don't know how long the debate will last, maybe forever. I don't know." Then he turned to McCall, whispered, "If only the cops have the guns. I already asked you to marry me many years ago."

McCall frowned and rolled her eyes in the darkness.

"Oh, sorry, I forgot, in that case, Steve is alive. I apologize." Hunter noticed the problem.

"It's OK." McCall turned to him, kissed Hunter's cheek, and they went to sleep.

 **In a grand ballroom at conference center in Hollywood**

It was a big ceremony, more than one thousand people came. Every police officer, including McCall and Hunter, dressed in police uniforms. The flags of United States, State of California, the City of LA and LAPD were hanging at the back of the stage. After the talks given by the brass, McCall pushed Hunter's wheelchair to the front stage, and they both accepted the medals from the Chief. Then each of them had to give a short speech, although neither of them liked to speak in public, they had to.

Hunter cleared his throat and said: "I am overwhelmed to receive this most prestigious award. I came on this job for a very simple reason at the beginning – I grew up in a dangerous neighborhood, and I didn't like it. After returning from Vietnam as a veteran, joining the force as a police officer was natural for me. I did what I supposed to do during the last 16 years, and I am happy with my choice. I felt somehow embarrassed by the attention today. To be honest, I am just one of the victims of the shooting. My partner, Sergeant McCall is the real hero... She noticed the gunman, asked everybody to hide and stopped him... She saved many lives including mine."

McCall took out a piece of paper she wrote last night and read: "… Hunter and I were just happened to be in the mass shooting scene during our off-duty time. When I saw my partner was shot, I felt so regret because I asked him to watch a movie there. Now, when I look back and rethink about it, I am happy that we were there. We are lucky to stop a potential disaster. At that moment, I didn't think about anything, our behavior merely reflected our years of professional habit, and it was just our instinctive reactions to the training. Without the training we received from this job, I would be just a name on the list of the victims. I appreciate my mentors in the academy and enjoy this job. Sergeant Hunter was the first one to jump up and ran to the shooter. Although he was wounded and missed the chance to stop the suspect, it gave me that critical one second to reach the killer and put him down. Without the extraordinary bravery of my partner, I was not able to do anything to stop this shooting. It's teamwork."

After a short pause, she looked at the audience and started to talk, "We didn't bring our weapons, but we really should. We know there is no real off-duty time as police officers, we should be prepared 7 days, 24 hours. Whenever anything happens, it's the command, and it's our duty. If we carried our guns, my partner should not suffer through all these. This is one thing I feel regret. Meanwhile, I wish the law on the firearm regulation can be more strict so that this kind of mass shootings could be avoided. I am already tired of watching it in the news again and again. Finally, I went through this terrible incident by myself. It's the time to make a change, how many people need to die before fixing our country's broken gun law?!"She looked at the audience with fire in her eyes.

The governor of California, the mayor of L.A. and the representative of the witnesses and victims, sent them flowers. Dozens of journalists took their pictures and asked them questions. They were the biggest heroes that year in L.A. and even the whole state. Hunter's mother sat in the middle of the first row of the audience, next to Ben and Ben's father. She was so exciting and kept on wiping her tears. Ben was still clapping hands after everybody stopped, then jumped to the stage and gave Hunter a big hug. "Rick, Daddy! I am so proud of you!"

McCall's parents sat at the far end of the first row. Opposite from Hunter's mom or Ben, they were not exciting. McCall knew that they were still unhappy that she chose to be a police officer, instead of going to medical school or law school many years ago. Even if it was too late for her to change her job, they wished McCall to marry a rich professional gentleman as soon as possible, then quit the job and stay at home like her mom. McCall's mother was a writer, musician and artist. After McCall's elder brother and sister had been born, mom quit her job and stayed at home teaching kids reading, singing, and piano. She gave all her love to her three kids.

McCall dared not to tell them that she decided to marry her partner. She knew she had to tell them sooner or later, but it was something so difficult to speak out. Her parents loved her so much that this would break their hearts. McCall loved her parents, but she already hurt them by becoming a cop, then marrying a cop and that cop died shortly after the wedding, now she was going to marry another cop and even worse, looked like a disabled cop. She even dared not to continue thinking. She didn't mean to hurt them, but she really did and didn't know how to avoid it.

During the reception after the ceremony, Commander Lester D. Cain came to them, now he was the Director of Internal Affair Administration Office. He showed a big smile and patted Hunter's shoulder, "Congratulations, Hunter, and McCall! When I was your captain, I assigned you two as partners. I knew that you were the best in the whole LAPD. Time proved that I was right. Are you going to claim disability and retire now? After getting tax-free pensions, you can take new jobs elsewhere, like what Bernie is doing. You guys are helping the State government to bankrupt faster."

Hunter didn't like him as much as Cain didn't like him, so Hunter replied sardonically "Thank you for your consideration, Commander. I think you should take a disability retirement, not me. It sounds like you already show symptoms of memory loss. The brain is the most important organ in our body. If Dr. Bolin is still alive, you should make an appointment with him."

McCall walked away from Cain. On her way to the other side of the room to meet her old colleagues, she heard a few officers were whispering, but, of course, they didn't see her.

One officer remarked, "The Brass Cupcake and Head Hunter! It was Friday night and off-duty. They were still together?"

Another replied, "Are you deaf or blind? Everyone knows that they've been sleeping together for years. Their captain covered for them. This is the evidence that it's no longer a rumor."

"I know," the first guy said, "I also know how they got the highest solve rate by breaking the law or department rules. That woman always pretended to be a hooker, and she picked up locks to break in places illegally."

Another chimed in, "I heard the Department will promote both of them, only because he was shot during that dating."

 **In LAPD office**

In the middle of work, Charlie suddenly asked McCall to his desk. His face was red, and he was puffing and blowing.

"Awful news, McCall! Hunter's promotion request was rejected because it missed the deadline."

"How? I know you submitted before the deadline."

"Of course I submitted it before the deadline! It was sitting on the desk of the human resources secretary for a whole week when she was on vacation; then it was delayed at two other places. When the chief's office finally got it, it was two weeks past the deadline. So you'll have to advance without him."

"That's terrible! It's their fault. Why didn't you argue with them?"

"You think I didn't argue?! All the spots are filled and this year's budget was finalized. There is no way to add in a new position."

"So, what's Hunter supposed to do now?"

"Don't know. It looks like I have to sign a new partner for him when he is back. I will explain to him."

McCall was upset. She went back to her desk quietly, wondering how to tell Hunter about it at night.

After a while, Charlie called her into his office again. "More bad news: we got the medical report from his doctor. Not surprising, Hunter could not meet the physical requirements to go back to his old position. He has to do a desk-bound job or retire. Tell him not to feel upset. I will find a suitable place for him if he chooses to come back."

* * *

 _To be continued ..._


	5. Chapter 5

**At the office in Parker Center**

It was close to 5 pm. McCall looked through the window, the sun just set, the sky was clear, from dark blue to purple then orange, with one or two bright stars showing up, amazingly beautiful. She was ready to leave. About half an hour ago, she called a carrying-out dinner from the restaurant a few blocks away. It was Hunter's favorite dish. Every day she could not wait to go home to accompany him, but today, she hesitated. In the car, McCall was thinking about how to tell Hunter the bad news and discuss his choice.

When she opened the door with the key, a smell of alcohol came to her. It was pretty dark inside the house, and something didn't feel right. McCall pulled out her gun, put her bag of food on the floor, stood against the wall, and started to search the house. While hiding beside the refrigerator, she suddenly switched on the lights… She saw Hunter was leaning on the couch snoring. The empty bottle of Whisky was on the floor near his feet, and at least one glass was broken with the pieces scattered on the tile of the kitchen.

McCall put her gun back to the purse, picked up the food from the floor and put them on the bar counter. She came to Hunter, studied him for a few seconds. As far as she knew, Hunter almost never drank, except at very particular occasions, which might be three or four times per year and, of course, she never saw him drunk. She remembered that bottle. Hunter told her Charlie brought that bottle in at the beginning of the year. As a big drinker, Charlie drank half of the bottle that day all by himself, and then the bottle was in the refrigerator untouched. Both Hunter and McCall were talking about get rid of it, but they didn't do it yet. This time, Hunter emptied the other half, so McCall knew something very upsetting must have happened to him.

She removed his shoes, raised his legs on the couch very carefully and tried to adjust him to a comfortable pose, then covered him with a blanket. When she was cleaning up the glass pieces in the kitchen, her heart sank. She believed that he must know the bad news somehow. How did he get it? Did Charlie call him? Or something else hit him.

It was never an easy job to clean up all the small pieces of broken glass. After finishing it, McCall came back to Hunter again. He was still in deep sleep and didn't look like easy to wake up. So she put one carry-out box in the refrigerator and ate the other one alone, quietly and quickly. She simply dumped the food into her stomach, without any leisure to enjoy their tastes, then she came back to prepare the bed for their sleeping. There was an opened file package beside the pillow. McCall took out the papers from the envelope and scanned through it. Besides the copy of the brief five-sentence-report the doctor sent to the department, there was a lengthy document with about sixty to seventy pages contained many poor-quality Xerox copies from the X-ray films. McCall brought the whole package to the bedroom upstairs and read them carefully. This report was written in both simple English for lay people and regular medical terminology for physicians. As a previously pre-medical program student in College, McCall had pretty good knowledge of medicine. It described all the damages and treatments Hunter received and the potential long-term sequelae he could have. Most of the things sounded so much more severe than Hunter told her previously. With the tears running, McCall finished reading the whole stack of paper. Her heart felt very painful again. She also suspected whether his "full recovery" would mean "survival with long-term disabilities".

After getting downstairs, McCall looked at Hunter with sympathy. She didn't want to wake up him and, of course, she was also not able to move him to the bed while he was sleeping. _Give him some time to calm down, it is a terrible ordeal for him_ _ **,**_ McCall put the envelope on the table, kissed his forehead and lay on the bed quietly. She felt it was so hard to go to sleep at the beginning, but eventually, she was wakened up after mid-night when Hunter awoke and got up. "Rick, do you need anything? You want to come here?" Hunter didn't answer while trying to reach his crutches in the darkness, "Where are you going?" McCall got up, switched on the side light and came to him.

Hunter answered impatiently, "Go back to your bed! I know where I am going!" McCall stopped and sat back on her bed. She saw Hunter walked to the bathroom awkwardly, and every step looked very painful. After spending quite a while there, when McCall almost went to check him, he finally came back, McCall offered "Come to bed".

He replied, "No, I like to sleep here!"

McCall came to him, held his arm and supported his back, asked, "Do you want to have anything to eat? I will warm up something for you."

Now Hunter's mood was back to normal, said, "No, thank you. I am not hungry." Then both of them sat down on the couch.

McCall knew it was not a good time to ask about the alcohol issue. She asked, "You slept early today. Did you take your pills? If not, I will bring them to you now."

Hunter answered quickly, "Don't go to the kitchen. I broke a glass." He paused a little bit and continued, "I could not pick up the pieces…They are too low for me to reach."

"No problem. I already cleaned up. I totally understand your feeling, Rick. Don't feel upset. Everything will be OK."

"Dee Dee, I didn't smash anything. I broke it by accident. Believe me."

"I trust you, as always," McCall said. "Even if you smashed it, it's understandable. It's a hard time for you and I should come home earlier every day. I accumulated plenty of vacation and sick time. I will use one or two hours each day from now on."

"No, you should move back to your home tomorrow. I am OK here by myself now. Don't worry about me." Hunter said with a reluctant smile.

"I want to stay with you, and I will be your wife, Rick."

"No, please do not. You would be better off without me, both at work and at home." Hunter said sadly and sincerely.

"Why do you think so? You mean everything for me. I cannot live without you."

"You know, you solved cases not much slower just by yourself than by both of us together. I am a cop, but now, I can't be a cop anymore. At home, I am not even able to pick up something from the floor. What else can I do?"

"Who told you that you cannot be a cop? I read your doctor's report in the department. It suggested that you should not work as a detective this year. One year passes by very fast."

"Are you able to read? It said 'AT LEAST' one year. My career is ended. I know it. Do you remember the basic requirements for the new officers, no major surgery or joint problem? I have both."

McCall explained, "You are not a new officer. You don't need to meet the same requirements. You think Charlie can pass the physical fitness tests for the recruitment? Your career is not ended. You could do management work, like Lt. Finn or Charlie. Don't you think that is a police career? You could dispatch people like Carol. We need at least one more dispatcher. That's also an important role in the office. We are so short of hands now; there are plenty of positions for you to pick even within our small office, let alone the whole homicide department or LAPD. In fact, working in the office is better for us to start a family. When we discussed it at the first time, you even suggested both of us quit the jobs. Why when you are ready to make a change, you become so upset?"

"You don't know! Every day after you went to work, I was just waiting for the shuttle to take me to the rehabilitation center, and then came back without any progress. I sat here watching the stupid TV or took a nap, waiting for you to bring me food. When my mom came, I had to see her cleaning up the house, making a bed and helping me to take off shoes. I even can hardly take a shower by myself. What's the meaning of my life?"

"Be patient." McCall appeased him, "You are already doing much better now. Within a few more months, you should be able back to work."

"Back to work? What kind of work you want me to do? Sitting at the desk digging papers for you guys or standing at the front office greeting visitors?"

"Charles will find something you like. He already requested for your promotion."She didn't want to mention that it was already rejected at this moment.

"McCall, I got the doctor's full report this morning. I left it somewhere after a quick look. There are too many terminologies that confused me, but I can tell that the doctors didn't tell me all the truth when I was there. They only picked anything sounds nice to say. I don't know how long I will be like this. What should I expect after 'full-recovery'? It has already been several months, but ... I was thinking about calling you but didn't want to interrupt because you have important jobs to do … So, … I drank all the leftover Whisky in the kitchen ..."

"Rick, you will be OK. You remember I was shot in the neck and got paralyzed last time? The hope of recovery was limited. See how good I am now. You remember how you encouraged me at that time? You didn't get anything even close to what I had. Everything will be OK."

"McCall, I don't know. I am so much older than you when you were shot. They also mentioned 'nerve damages' in the report at multiple places. Last time, when Mariano shot me, it only kept me down for a few weeks, besides this shoulder was hurt, I didn't feel anything else wrong. But, this time from the head to toe, I could never find anywhere feel comfortable. They asked me to start exercise early, so I started two weeks after the first surgery. It's ten times more painful than the bullet penetration, but it is totally useless!"

"Dee Dee, don't laugh at me, when I locked myself here, I already cried many times. I only cried a handful times in my whole life, but now am I still a man? I really want to give up the training and simply claim disability. You see, I am still short of breath, even just sit here doing nothing. I dare not to sit straight because the belly hurt so much and diarrhea 3 times a day. I could hardly put any weight onto this damn leg, not only the hip is too painful, but also I can hardly feel my foot. It's hard to keep balance or control the movement. How can I work? When can I go back to normal life? Those doctors are all liars!" Hunter sounded so frustrated, beat his head heavily with fists and started to cry out.

McCall wrapped her arms around Hunter's shoulders, held him tightly and leaned her face on him. "Of course, the rehabilitation helped you. I can imagine how much pain it is. Every time when I was there, I saw all your clothes were wet by sweating. Please don't give up. You are getting better every day. I can tell. I remember how frustrated it was when I went through that and how many times I cried. Without your support, I might already give up and sit in a wheelchair today."

After a few seconds of silence, she said,"I already read your complete report while you were sleeping." McCall picked up it up from the table and handed it to Hunter. "All the 'nerve damages' they mentioned here are peripheral nerves, not the central neuronal system. The sciatic nerve is the most difficult one to recover, but yours didn't break, it was crashed by the fracture of joint. They did two surgeries to release the pressure and reconnect the broken nerves within a few days right after the damage, so it will be fully or nearly full-recovered, just takes time. Now, keep on passive exercises to avoid muscle atrophy while the nerves are regenerating. After you can be more active, the lung and GI tract function will recover afterward. For most of the potential long-term sequelae they mentioned there, if you don't have them now, you should not have them in the future. A lot of those things in the report were written during the first week; they were even not sure that you could survive or not. Don't worry about it."

Hunter looked at her suspiciously with tearful eyes.

McCall stopped a little bit and continued, "You are not a regular drinker. Suddenly drinking that much will damage your health, especially you are taking so many different pills. Did you ever read the prescription that anyone could not combine with alcohol? It could be toxic and increase the side-effects. You should not skip a dose of the anti-clot. If blood clot forms, it could cause stroke or heart attack and kill you. Plus, you also should not sit so low and sleep here. It might dislocate your new joint."

"I don't care! I don't want to be alive like this anymore! I wish I died at the scene that night!" Hunter pushed McCall away, replied loudly and outraged, "Don't mother me!"

"What?! Do you think about your mom? Do you care about me? Do you know how much effort they spent to save your life? I love you because you are my superhero. I thought you are strong inside and out. Unfortunately, you are such a coward inside! You disappointed me so much!" McCall was so angry over his answer.

"So, I am not the man you should marry!" Hunter shouted. "Then, leave! Just leave me alone! Get out of my house! Don't waste your pity on me!"

McCall burst into tears. Hunter never used any words to hurt her, never, except these. She stood up, grabbed her purse and opened the door. A sudden gust of cold wind made her shiver. She slammed the door and ran to her car.

"McCall, McCall!" Hunter suddenly stood up trying to catch her, but a violent streak of pain ripped through his whole body and his vision blacks out with severe dizzy, he fell heavily back to the couch. After a few deep breathes, he struggled to get up, grabbed one crutch meanwhile knocked the other one over. He tried, but didn't want to spend more time to pick it up from the floor. When he hold the maximum pain he could bear, dragged the numb leg and limped to the door as fast as he could, McCall had already left.

He locked the door, came back and sat down on the bed. He sat there with a vacant stare. He touched the bed; it was still warm with McCall's temperature. He picked up the pillow and smelled it; he could still smell her there, but she was gone. Hunter was very sorrowful. He felt McCall would be better without him, but he should have chosen better words to persuade her. Tears came down, and he closed the eyes. He picked up the phone but didn't know what he should say, so he put it down. He lay on the bed and could not sleep for the rest of the night.

 _Dee Dee, I am sorry. I should not yell at you, should not ask you to leave, should not say anything to hurt you. I didn't really mean to give up. I know I will recover somehow and back to work some day. I just don't know what I can do then, and I am tired of my situation. I apologize. Of course, I care about you. Your happiness is my ultimate goal. If I apologize, you might come back and want to marry me, which is what I am dreaming for but should not be what I want. You should marry a better guy. Even before I was wounded, I could not give you what you deserved. Now I am just a useless sick man. I should push you away. … But, if I am the only one you love, and I know I am, we should get married. I could not be a cop anymore and I would be safer. I don't want to be your burden. I don't know how much disability I would have later, and I don't want you to marry someone need you to take care. I am so sorry, Dee Dee. If I don't apologize, I'll definitely hurt you, and how can I hurt my angel that way? You are my whole world. I have to apologize to you. …_ Hunter thought back and forth, and his head was in chaos and he could not rehearsal his apologize or figure out a good way.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	6. Chapter 6

**At McCall's house**

McCall got back home in her pajamas and slippers. Her bedroom was as cold as outside. The heater was off while she lived in Hunter's house. She locked the door, threw herself onto the bed and cried out loudly. It was the saddest and angriest night she ever had. She had been hurt on the job many times, and she was angry, but this one was entirely different. This time, her heart was hurt by someone she'd loved so deeply for so many years. She cried and cried until she went to sleep at about 6:30 in the morning. When she woke up, it was almost eight. She jumped up, got dressed, brushed her hair and added more lipstick in the car, and then rushed to the office.

 **In LAPD office**

Kitty was looking for McCall to discuss their case and wondering why she was late. McCall finally arrived in a rush, out of breath.

"Good morning, Dee Dee!" Kitty came to her desk. "Are you OK? You look like you had a rough night."

"Yes, no problem. I am fine." McCall answered with a perfunctory smile.

"Dee Dee, you don't look fine for me. What's wrong? We can talk outside."

"OK, I will tell you later. Give me what you found yesterday and let's do the job first." As best friends, McCall definitely would tell Kitty her terrible last night.

After their secret girls' whispers during lunch, Kitty said, "Don't worry, I will bring him back to you."

"How?" McCall asked although she knew Kitty always had many smart tricks.

"It's a piece of cake. You will see," Kitty answered fully with confidence.

 **At Hunter's house**

It was Saturday morning. Hunter was making coffee. The bell rang. It took him quite a while before opening the door, and when he did, he found Charlie on the other side.

"Good morning, Charlie."

"Sorry, it's too early. Did I wake you up?"

"It's already eight, not early. Come in, please."

Charlie noticed that he was not very "OK". The room was quite warm, and he still wore a very thick sweater. His face was pale with a grayish tint, and dark circles were under his eyes. The table was messy with a small size pizza box and two different dirty restaurant takeout boxes. Four or five prescription medication bottles were next to these trash. One dish, 3 cups, and some spoons were soaked in the sink. A few pieces of used paper towel were on the floor next to the trash can. An empty wine bottle was lying side way on the ground next to the couch. The bed was not made. Some McCall's clothes were in the room and her shoes were near the door, but she was not here, neither was her car.

"Where is McCall?" Charlie asked.

"She's probably at her house," Hunter answered, sounded not sure.

"Probably? What happened between you and her?"

"Nothing. I am OK to be here by myself, so she doesn't need to stay with me every day, and my mom also stops by occasionally." Hunter sat down slowly on a bar stool, pointed another one for Charlie.

"How are you doing?" Charlie asked with solicitude, "Still hurt a lot?"

"I am fine, just a little bit pain. If I don't move, I even can hardly feel it." He didn't know why he lied to Charlie. After he leaned the crutches against the cabinet and he continued, "They required me to use these for eight weeks, no matter I need them or not. Charlie, I feel so bored every day, you can't imagine it. I really cannot stand it anymore."

"That's great. As soon as I get the doctor's note, you can come back. We have too many cases. All of us are missing you." Charlie was delighted with his answer.

The coffee maker stopped dripping water, Charlie grabbed two cups, poured one cup for Hunter and another for himself, came back and sat down next to him. He asked directly, "Tell me the truth, how long have you two been living together? Treat me like your friend, not your boss. I will not speak out."

"Since I was released from the hospital in October," Hunter answered.

"Really? The rumor said you guys have been sleeping together for a few years. Since your behavior has always been professional, I pretended that I didn't hear anything and didn't question you."

"Rumor is a rumor. We learned to ignore it. Believe me, Charlie. We've never done anything inappropriate on-duty. Even off-duty, we've kept our distance. McCall is a solemn woman. She's dated quite a few guys during the past few years; you know that. How could it be possible that she was also with me at the same time?"

"That's right. Having a woman partner could be very different, especially McCall is one of the prettiest in the whole building. Everybody is jealous of you and spreading scandalous gossip about you. What's your next plan? Marry her?"

"I don't know. You know how hard it is to have a family as a cop."

"Yes. That's true. In fact, after you pass the stage of the street cop, it is much easier. I got married when I was a detective, even lower than your rank. It is very hard to share that kind of life with someone you love. In your case, McCall is also a cop. It might be earlier than mine, or harder. I don't know. When I just started to do management, I didn't think I could handle life bound to a desk all day long. Later, I found it wasn't as bad as I expected. If I can find a right woman now, I will get married right away, like that." He snapped off his fingers.

Then two men chatted something else related to the new murder scene Charlie just went to this morning, the cases they were working on recently, sports, women and Charlie's cat. Hunter thought of but eventually did not ask Charlie to help him to figure out a way to apologize to McCall.

Shortly after Charlie left, and just when Hunter was half-way towards upstairs, the bell rang again. "What a day!" Hunter murmured while he turned back very carefully on the stairs. He really wished it was McCall, so he answered loudly, "Come in by yourself, please." He heard outside people pushed the door but found it was locked, and then nothing else happened. "Who is that?" He asked while getting down. "It's me, Kitty." Kitty never came to his home before. After McCall had moved here, she stopped by quite a few times just for her.

"Hi, Hunter, you are walking now, much better than the day at your ceremony. Is Dee Dee inside?"

"No, she went home. Please come in."

"Thank you. If she is not inside now, I will not go in there. I was thinking about asking her to go shopping together. This is the VCR tape I brought for her to watch. I forgot to bring to work yesterday. I will leave it here."

"You can give it to her while you guys go shopping," Hunter said.

"Since she is not here, I will go by myself. Ask her to bring it back to me on Monday, I will return to my friend." Kitty gave Hunter the tape and left.

The tape is Ghost, the movie they didn't finish watching three months ago. It reminded him of so much. Suddenly, Hunter had an idea.

 **At McCall's house**

McCall had been living at her home for 29 hours including about ten hours working in the station, but the time felt so long. Every minute was hard to go through. After she had told Kitty their arguments in details, Kitty pointed out that her word, calling him "coward" hurt Hunter as severe as Hunter hurting her, especially at the time he felt most depressed. She totally didn't realize it by herself. She called the rehabilitation center Friday afternoon to make sure that he was there and told the nurse not to tell him that she called. She wanted to call him at home and apologize to him, but she still hoped that he would call her first.

When she lay on her bed last night, she could not go to sleep. She slept next to him for about two months, either on his bed or the couch next to him. She got used to it. It was not romantic at all - he was weak and with a lot of pain, at the beginning even need her help to change position in bed, but she felt safe, happy and satisfied only if he was there with her. Now she felt so sad and lonely. When she closed her eyes, there were so many things flashed back. From the first day, they ate ice-cream and set up the deal to everything they went through together during the last six years. She could not forget all her recent feelings. She saw Hunter's eyes looking at her helpless when he was lying in the pool of blood. She remembered the feeling of holding his cold hand in the ambulance. She recalled his long surgery scars all over the place while she gave him showers. She felt that she was still hearing his slow and painful steps moving around in the house … She missed that sound.

She understood how lonely, frustrated and depressed he was during this endless and slow progressed rehabilitation process. She felt so regret. When Hunter needed her most, she had left him. He needed her mentally more than physically. When she smashed the door, she heard him calling her name, but she ignored him and still left. She wished that she should stop and turned back. She had been eager for the phone call since she got home, but Hunter didn't call, which made her worry more. She knew Hunter had the gun with him, and Andy's death flashed back in her mind quickly. _No, no, no, don't worry, Rick is not that kind of person._ McCall tried to convince herself to get rid of these terrible images in her brain. She knew him. _He would not follow Andy,_ but McCall still felt more and more upset.

Every weekend or any day when McCall took off, she sent him to the rehabilitation center and waited for him there. Today would be a short day, his training would not start until 2 pm. She would do the same as usual. She planned to go back to Hunter's house this morning, no matter he called or not, bring some his favorite food and the massage oil she got yesterday from the doctor that Nyuen Tran referred. Hunter's mom came in almost once per week and brought nice food for him for lunch, and McCall also ate those as dinner, but she never came on weekends. It was only eight something in the morning; the restaurants will not open for lunch before ten. She would call as soon as it opened.

While waiting, McCall walked to her piano. On the top of the piano, there was a black and white photo of Hunter and herself in a department picnic about four years ago. It reminded her so much good memories that they shared together.

McCall sat down. She didn't play much on her piano for quite a while. Not only because she stayed at Hunter's house recently, but during these a few years she was also too busy at work on weekdays and most of the weekends. Besides that, a few keys sounded a little off, even though most of the people can not notice it, but it bothered her. When that night the guy who hated successful women attacked her in the house, during their fighting, someone bumped into the piano. She didn't get a chance to call a technician to tune the piano yet. Today she had the time, she called the technician to set an appointment and she wanted to play now, even if it didn't sound perfect.

Firstly, she played Beethoven's For Elise to warm up. She was so familiar with it, and it remained comfortable. Then she started Moonlight Sonata, the first two movements were OK, but she was not able to play the stormy final movement, which was the most unbridled in its representation of emotion. She kept on making mistakes and her fingers could not move fast enough to catch up with her brain. After recovered from the shot at the neck, her piano skills could never fully recover. It was one of the costs she paid to be a cop, which she didn't tell anybody and didn't want to tell anybody. McCall sighed with a little sadness. She just wanted to be relaxed, to expressing her feelings, so she picked her newly bought sheet music - popular music and rearrangements of classical music by Richard Clayderman. Popular music didn't bother her, although she was trained to play master's works since childhood and got level 10 in high school, at that time she was also learning to sing operas as a Mezzo Soprano. In her real world, popular music was much more useful. She played one after another, from Mariage d' amour to A Comme Amour, from Greensleeves to Love is blue …

While McCall was immersed in the romantic music, she didn't know that her Prince Charming, also her imagined audience was standing outside of the house and listening to her music…

When she stopped, the doorbell rang. McCall opened the door and was shocked. Hunter was standing outside, wearing his thick ivory white down coat that she newly bought for him, looked like an astronaut, with one bright red rose in his hand.

"Wow, Rick, how did you get here? Come in, come in." McCall was excited and a little shy.

"I took the taxi. Dee Dee, I apologize the other night … Kitty asked me to bring you this tape." Hunter answered, "I know you play piano and compose music, but I never really spent enough time to listen to you playing the piano before."

"Thank you. Beautiful rose! It's cold outside. How long have you been there?" McCall took the rose and the plastic bag from him.

"About ten or fifteen minutes. This coat is warm enough for me to go to the Arctic Ocean. Your music is so beautiful. Did you write any of these?" Hunter asked. Apparently, he didn't know much about music.

"Of course not. How can you expect me to compose that music? They were written by famous people." McCall laughed and helped him to get into her living room and then they both sat down. Hunter took off the coat and McCall hung it on the back of the chair.

McCall put the rose in her tiny glass vase and opened the plastic bag. When she took out the tape, "Ghost!" McCall was surprised. She didn't want to see this title again, as it reminded her that terrible night. _Why would Kitty want me to watch this again?_ She thought. She put the tape on the table, face down.

"Rick, I am sorry that I hurt your feeling that night. I should not yell at you, call you 'coward' and ran away. I did not mean it. I totally understand you. I went through similar things more than once. The difference is that you were always with me at my darkest time, but I …"

"Dee Dee, don't say that, don't say anything. It's entirely my fault. I apologize. Everything you said was right. After you had left, you don't know how much I hate myself."

"Me, too," McCall replied and grabbed Hunter's shoulder. They looked at each other lovingly for a long time.

Hunter asked, "Do you want to watch this together with me? We didn't get a chance to finish it in the theater."

"No, I don't want to see it again." McCall felt disgusted by the tape. "We were almost killed because of it."

"We were nearly killed by a man, not by this tape." Hunter joked, "Come on, put it into your VCR and grab something to drink."

McCall reluctantly put the tape into her VCR. They sat side-by-side, as that night they were in the theater, but Hunter had his arm wrapped to McCall, which was different from that time.

When Molly asked, "Do you love me, Sam?", McCall leaned her face to Hunter's chest. She heard his strong heartbeats and felt his warmth. She asked, "Do you love me, Rick? You also never said that to me."

"What do you think? Dee Dee." Hunter replied softly with a smile," I said 'I love you' all the time."

"Only very recently." McCall completed the answer for him and smiled back. Hunter held her tighter.

"About here, you noticed the guy," Hunter said.

"Yes," McCall said after a few seconds, "at this point you were shot, and I put him down."

When Sam came back to his dead body on the screen, McCall said, "I came back to you when I thought you were dying, and I cried 'I love you' to you. Did you hear that?"

"Of course, I heard it, but I was not able to tell you the same thing. I felt like in a nightmare that I wanted to cry, but could not make any voice." Hunter answered.

McCall joked, "That guy chose the scene to match us synchronized, looked like on purpose."

Hunter laughed while using his free hand to press his abdomen, which hurt badly when laughing.

McCall said, "The only difference is that we are still together on earth."

At this time, they held together so tight that it seemed they would never separate. They continued to watch until the credit name list showing up.

"It is a great movie!" They both agreed and looked at each other fondly.

"Will you marry me, Dee Dee?" Hunter asked.

"Of course, I will." McCall gave him a big eye-rolling, "How about you?"

Instead of answering her, Hunter cuddled her and gave her a deep kiss. McCall's heart beat faster, and she felt blood flush to her face and warmed up all over her body. She wrapped her arm around him, and they were kissing passionately, like three years ago at her last house. McCall could not help holding him tighter and rubbed his back. Suddenly, Hunter twitched in agony as if something stung him when she accidentally touched his bullet hole, the exit. She could feel the scar from outside of his sweater, and she knew that the broken rib was just healed and the damaged intercostal nerve was hurt every moment.

McCall loosened her hands right away, moved her lips away from Hunter's and pushed him away gently. "I am so sorry to hurt you. Rick, you are not ready yet. I shouldn't forget."

Hunter didn't open his eyes. His face was red, and his breath was unsteady and fast. He was so thirsty and hungry, still trying to kiss her, "Yeah, I am ready. I have been waiting for three years."

McCall said, "Sergeant, but I am not ready."

Hunter opened his eyes and looked at her.

McCall fondled his hair and said, "We will spend our rest of lives together. Rick, let's wait for just a few more weeks as the doctors told you, OK? Starting from tonight, you lay down still, and I will give you a hot oil massage every night, including here." McCall gently kneaded his sensitive part, with a mischievous smile. "I own you one since three years ago … Massage will help you to recover faster, especially this leg requires more stimulation for the nerve reconnection. Ben's father strongly recommended you to get some therapy by the acupuncturist in Chinatown. Last time, when he was ..."

Suddenly, the phone rang, and McCall stood up to get it. "It is Kitty," McCall told Hunter, and she answered the phone, "I will be there right away."

Hunter asked, "Shopping?"

"No, someone found a body in Westwood, and the Department paged Kitty," McCall answered while grabbed a grocery store pre-made sandwich from her refrigerator. Then she started to look for her working clothes and dressed up.

She said, "I was thinking about having something nice for us today, but because watching the movie, I forgot to call the restaurant, and we don't have time now. Let's have a good dinner. You want to stay here by yourself or go with me? I should come back within one to two hours and then we will go to the rehabilitation center together. I have some food in the refrigerator."

Hunter answered, "I'll go with you, of course."

McCall opened the door, helped Hunter to sit in the car, went back to get another sandwich from the refrigerator and put both into one brown bag, grabbed the massage oil from the table, asked him to hold them all, and then they drove to the murder scene together.

* * *

 _To be continued..._


	7. Notes

1\. "Ghost" was a real movie in 1990, in fact, released just after Season 6 and before Season 7. It is the highest-grossing film in that year in the whole world. In the movie, Sam and Molly are lovers, so do H and M in my story, even if they didn't tell each other. "Ghost" is a movie about "love" and "death." I tried to create a similar plot.

2\. Theater shooting is real. 12 people were killed, and 58 were injured (Colorado, 2012). The killer was a Ph.D. student studying Neuroscience. Then in Louisiana (July 2015), a guy shot in the theater again, killed 2 people, injured 7, then killed himself.

3\. Unarmed and off-duty heroes stopped a would-be mass shooting is real. In a French train, two hero US marines and one student foiled terrorist after hearing AK-47 being loaded and stopped hundreds of train passengers being killed (August 21, 2015).

4\. Law-enforcement officer mistakenly shot, and killed a 12-year-old boy with toy BB gun is also real (Cleveland, November 2014).

5\. Cleveland Elementary School shootings are real. There are two "Cleveland Elementary School shooting" in California. One happened in 1979 in San Diego. A depressed 16-year-old girl was the shooter, killed 2 and injured 9 using a Ruger 10/22 semi-automatic rifle. The other one happened in Stockton in 1989. The gunman had a long criminal history. He used a semi-automatic AK-47 rifle, shot and killed 5 children, and wounded 29 other children and 1 teacher, before committing suicide. It happened during the season 5 when Hunter was on air. So what McCall mentioned in my story was the Stockton shooting.

6\. Medal of Valor, the highest honor in LAPD, is real. It is an award for bravery, usually given for individual acts of extraordinary bravery or heroism performed in the line of duty at extreme, life-threatening, personal risk. It recognizes officers whose actions could be considered as having gone above and beyond the call of duty, or to acknowledge an officer who has performed an act of bravery displaying an extreme amount of courage while knowingly facing imminent danger.

7\. Criminal rates are much higher in summer than any other season is real. You can search the reports through the internet. Especially 2015 summer is the worst.

8\. California State Government bankruptcy is real. Abuse of retirement with a disability of police officers is a problem in that state and the whole country.

9\. The national and LA criminal records were both peaked in 1991-1992. During the years when Hunter was on-air, every year the crime climbed.


End file.
